S2: E2 Inner Demons
The party travels to the town of Talinvale, a run down town that reeks of festering decay whose inhabitants are by far the oddest individuals the group has ever met. While the towns fields hadn't been used in ages, and there being no sign of immediate livestock the citizens of Talinvale, although seemingly completely ignorant of hygiene, don't seem to have any issues with malnutrition. After some prying around about the beast that the party has been hired to kill, the party quickly realizes that they are not welcome here. They venture back into the woods to find the Enlightened Flame members that had originally issued the bounty. They find the camp ransacked, with signs of an odd winged creature having been there. The party returns to the village to ask the local leaders Mance, an incredibly fat and ugly man, and Valant, a wispy hunch-backed man, some further questions. They are stopped outside the tower by the two guards, making a deal that if the party could beat them in a contest of strength that they could pass. With the guards distracted, Spruce, Falfaelor, Ivan and Rolf sneak into the tower. They hear the whimpering of a grown man, following the sound to a cellar door. Upon opening the door, the four are met with a horrific humming noise, the sounding having a lasting effect on Rolf and leaving him unconscious. Spruce jumps into the basement finding Mance biting into the arm of one of the enlightened flame members the party had been contracted by. Mance and Valant transform into horrific demons as a full out battle breaks out. The guards at the door, hearing the commotion transform as well, turning into hulking demonic apes and attack the party that remains outside alongside a Vrock that lay hidden in the tower, and Charlie the Butcher (also transformed). The party struggles to defeat the demons, Dieanna and Canelle both brought to the near brink of death. The party finds that through the means of a magical box whose contents forces any who see it to crave its contents with an unsatiable lust, had turned the entirety of the town into cannibals. The town, with their food source now destroyed, the town breaks into a frenzy, eating one another while they were still alive. In order to stop the frenzy, Dreynar attempts to destroy the box the using the arcane lexicon succeeding, but not without a catch. In order to remove the curse, a deal must be made. A soul must be given, to be tormented in Mance's hell for eternity, in order to break the curse. With the arcane lexicon unable to keep the magical energies of the portal in-check Dreynar makes a split second decision and reaches into the crowd, pulling the soul of a young girl into the portal. The townsfolk break from their frenzy, reeling back in horror. The party helps the townsfolk collect themselves and begins to walk the 500 hundred survivors toward the closest city, Lucinni. Of the 500 that set out, only 350 remain. In his despair over the choice that he had made, Dreynar spends alot of time in the old abandoned house of the Thunderburkers. Here, through self reflection he comes to the horrible fact that the party's soulbound items are infact captured souls, cursed to relive horrific moments in their past in order to supply the party's power. Dreynar sends the soul on, relinquishing his soulbound item, and tells the party of this newly learned information. Dreynar leads the party on a guided meditation and offers them the choice to relinquish their soulbound items, the entirety of the party deciding not to.